Vehicle window regulating mechanisms



A. A. BURRIDGE VEHICLE WINDOW REGULATING MECHANISMS Nov. 23, 1965 5Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 16, 1963 Nov. 23, 1965 A. BURRIDGE VEHICLEWINDOW REGULATING MECHANISMS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 16, 1963 Nov.23, 1965 A. A. BURRIDGE 3,219,335

VEHICLE WINDOW REGULATING MECHANISMS Filed Dec. 16, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet5 fig 9.

United States Patent 3,219,335 VEHICLE WINDOW REGULATING MECHANISMSAnthony Arthur Burridge, Solihull, England, assignor to Willmot-BreedenLimited, Birmingham, England Filed Dec. 16, 1963, Ser. No. 330,794

Claims priority, application Great Britain, Dec. 17, 1962,

47,445/ 62 1 Claim. (Cl. 268-124) This invention relates to vehiclewindow regulating mechanisms of the kind including an elongated flexibledriving element comprising a core and a helically coiled wire wound onthe core, elongated tubular guide means for the driving element, aconnecting piece secured to the driving element and projecting through alongitudinally extending slot in the guide means and actuating meansincluding a rotatable pinion engaging the helically-wound wire on thedriving element, the guide and actuating means being secured in use to avehicle door and the connecting piece being connected to a windowslidably mounted on said door so that operation of the actuating meanseffects movement of the window relative to the door.

When it is required to use such a regulating mechanism with a windowwhich, by virtue of its shape, cannot be supported along its oppositelateral edges between a pair of guide channels, difficulty isencountered in preventing the window from pivoting about an axistransverse to the plane of the window.

Accordingly one object of this invention is to provide a windowregulating mechanism of the kind specified wherein the above-mentioneddifficulty can be avoided. Other objects and advantages will be madeclear hereinafter.

In accordance with the invention in a window regulating mechanism of thekind specified the connecting piece is connected to a window supportingmember adapted to support the in situ lower edge of the window, at leasta pair of guiding elements are mounted on said window-supporting memberso as to engage the tubular guide means on one side thereof at positionsspaced along the length of the tubular guide means and at least onefurther guiding element is mounted on the window-supporting member so asto engage the tubular guide means on its opposite side, said furtherguiding element or elements being so positioned relative to thefirst-mentioned guiding elements as to prevent angular movement of thewindow-supporting member relative to the adjacent portion of the tubularguide means.

The guiding elements are preferably in the form of rollers rotatablymounted on the window-supporting member and where the minimum number ofguiding elements are employed one of the first-mentioned guidingelements and the further guiding element are each convenientlyadjustably mounted on the window-supporting member.

The invention will now be more particularly described with reference tothe accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of one example of a window-regulatingmechanism in accordance with the invention shown with parts of themechanism broken away for clarity.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary sectional side elevation of the mechanismtaken on a line 2-2 in FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary section on the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary front elevation of a modification of theexample shown in FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 5 is a side elevation of the modification shown in FIGURE 4,

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary section on the line 6-6 in FIGURE 4,

3,219,335 Patented Nov. 23, 1965 FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary section onthe line 7-7 in FIGURE 4, and

FIGURES 8 and 9 show alternative configurations of the section shown inFIGURE 7.

Referring firstly to the example shown in FIGURES 1 to 3 it is requiredto regulate a window 10 which is slidably mounted in guide channels 11located between the inner and outer panels of a vehicle door 12. Theguide channels 11 are, as a result of the shape of the window 11inclined to the vertical, so that there is a tendency for the panel 10to skew about an axis perpendicular to its plane and stick in the guidechannels 11.

As shown in FIGURE 2, the lower edge of the window 10 is supported in achannel member 13 to which a pair of horizontal guide members 14 aresecured. Each of these guide members 14 depends from the channel member13 and has at its lower edge an upwardly projecting V-shaped flange 14a.The web of the channel member 13 is similarly formed to a downwardlyprojecting V-shaped form. These two V-shaped parts project into a grooveformed between head 15a of a stud 15 and a frusto-conical washer 16mounted on the shank of the stud 15. The stud 15 is secured to a windowsupporting member in the form of a T-shaped plate 17 and a spring 18 islocated on the stud shank and the plate 17 to urge the washer 16 towardsthe head 15a.

The plate 17 is connected to a flexible driving element 19 through theintermediary of a connecting piece 20 and a resilient coupling. Thedriving element 19 consists of a core 19a in the form of a bundle ofwires and a helically coiled wire 1% wound on the core and is disposedwithin tubular guide means in the form of an open-seamed sheet metaltube 21. The connecting piece 20 is formed as a sheet metal pressing andhas a pair of part cylindrical portions 201:, a web portion 20b and aportion 200 which is wrapped around the driving element 19 and which hasa plurality of slots into wh ch the wire 1% projects. The connectingpiece 29 projects through the open seam in the tube 21 and itspart-cylindrical portions 20a are bonded to a pair of rubber pads 22.These rubber pads 22 engage a pair of brackets 23 secured to the plate17 so that there is a resilient coupling between the connecting piece21) and the plate 17.

The tube 21 is adapted to be secured to the structure in which thewindow It) is slidably mounted and for this purpose a bracket 24 issecured to the upper end of tube 21. As will be seen from FIGURE 1 thetube 21 is bent to an L-shaped form of which one limb extends verticallyand the other horizontally. This configuration enables the mechanism tobe housed within the limited space available within the vehicle door.Mounted on the door adjacent the bend in the tube 21 is actuating meansin the form of an electric motor 25. Connected to the shaft of the motorthrough known reduction gearing and a slipping clutch brake arrangementis a pinion 26 (shown in FIGURE 3) which projects through a hole in tube21 and engages the helically coiled wire 1%. The tube 21 is clamped in ahousing 27 secured to the motor 25 and the tube 21 is thus secured tothe door structure at the top and bottom of its vertical limb. The tube21 is therefore capable of acting as a guide for the plate 17.

Mounted on the plate 17 are a pair of spaced guide elements in the formof rollers 28, 29 arranged to engage the tube 21 on one side. A furtherguide element in the form of a roller 31 is mounted on the plate 17 onthe other side of the tube 21 and is arranged to engage the tube 21between the rollers 28, 29. The roller 28 is rotatable on an axis fixedwith respect to the plate 17 and is, in fact supported on the shank of abolt 31 secured to the plate 17. Each of the rollers 29 and 30 ismounted on an cecentric support (as shown in FIGURE 2) comprising a 3spindle 32, a circular pad 33 and an eccentric bolt 34 by means of whichthe pad 33 can be secured in any desired position to the plate 17.

In assembling the mechanism described above to a vehicle door, the motorand guide tube 21 are first secured to the door structure. The brackets23 are then secured to the plate 17 already engaged with the horizontalguide members 14. The position of the plate 17 is then adjusted so thatthe roller 28 engages the tube and the rollers 29 and 30 are thenadjusted and the.asso ciated pads secured in position. It will now berealized that the plate 17 cannot be rocked about an axis perpendicularto the plane of the window panel 10 owing to the interaction between theguide tube 21 and the rollers 28, 29 and 30. Thus, owing to the mannerin which the window 10 is connected to the plate 17, the window 10 willnot skew and become stuck in its guide channels 11. It will also benoted that there is transverse movement between the plate 17 because thetube 21 is vertical whereas the guide channels 11 are inclined, and thepanel as the window 10 is raised and lowered, such movement beingpermitted by the horizontal guide members 14.

In the modification shown in FIGURES 4 to 9, the tubular guide means forthe flexible drive element 19 includes a reinforcing web thecross-sectional form of one example of which is shown in FIGURE 7. Twofurther examples 35a and 35b are shown in FIGURES 8 and 9. As will beseen from FIGURE 4, where the tubular guide means includes such a web inaddition to the tube 21 it may not be necessary to anchor the tube atits upper end.

The example shown depicts the use of the mechanism for a partcylindrical window 36 which is movable in a generally verticaldirection. It should be noted that the curvature shown in FIGURE 5 hasbeen exaggerated considerably for the purpose of illustration.

Window 36 is rigidly mounted in a channel 37 welded to a pressed metalplate 38. To the plate 38 a window supporting member 39 (correspondingto the plate 17 of FIGURE 1) is bolted. On member 39 the rollers 28, 29and 30 are disposed as before. In this case, however, only the roller 30is adjustable on an eccentric mounting. As shown in FIGURE 6 each of therollers 28, 29 and 30 is mounted on a part spherical bearing piece 40.In the case of the rollers 28 and 29 the piece 40 is mounted on astepped tubular member 41 riveted to the plate 39. The use of thespherical bearing enables the rollers to align themselves with thereinforcing web 35 with which they are engaged.

In the modification, the direction of movement of the window 36 and theguide tube 21 are both vertical, so that there is no relative movementbetween the window 36 and the supporting member 39. The web 35, preventsskewing of the window about an axis parallel to the axis of the tube 21as well as reinforcing the tube.

It will be appreciated that the tubular guide means for the flexibledriving element also provides a rigid guide for the window and can guidethe window completely independently of any sliding guides that areprovided. In cases where sliding guides cannot be provided, the exampleWhen a trapezoidal panel is employed; the guide tube and co-actingrollers provides the sole means of guiding the window.

In alternative forms the actuating means may be manually operable.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

A vehicle window regulating mechanism including an elongated flexibledriving element comprising a core and a helically coiled wire wound onthe core, elongated tubular guide means for the driving element, saidguide means being provided with a longitudinally extending slot, aconnecting piece secured to the driving element and projecting throughthe longitudinally extending slot in the guide means, actuating meansincluding a rotatable pinion engaging the helically wound wire of thedriving element, a window supporting member connected to the connectingpiece and adapted to support the in situ lower edge of a window, atleast a pair of guiding elements mounted on said window supportingmember for engaging the tubular guide means on one side thereof atpositions spaced along the length of the tubular guide means, a padrotatably mounted on the window supporting member, and a further guidingelement mounted eccentrically on said pad for engaging the tubular guidemeans on its opposite side at a position intermediate said firstmentioned guiding elements.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,014,715 12/1961Martens 2 68l33 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,232,890 4/ 1960 France. 797,8667/1958 Great Britain.

930,075 Great Britain (corresponding).

REINALDO P. MACHADO, Primary Examiner.

HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Examiner.

